De-Fenceless

Northwest Oregon had a mild windstorm last night. It can’t have been too bad because there’s no mention of it in the news. Yet it was strong enough to wake both me and Kris. The wind chimes rang throughout the night. Worst of all, it was enough to blow over a section of our fence.

If I could find my digital camera, I’d post a picture of the damage here. It’s not severe — Kris is most upset about the damage to her plants, including a rhododendron that may be a complete loss — but it’s puzzling. This section of our fence was erected two or three years ago and had seemed structurally sound. It showed no signs of sagging, yet last night’s wind was enough to topple it.

It appears that four of the 4×4 fence posts simply snapped at their bases. Did they rot? We don’t know yet. Both of us remember using pressure-treated wood for the posts, and using Quickcrete to hold them in place. Are we both imagining this? Perhaps we did use Quickcrete but did not use pressure-treated wood. This seems unlikely. I suspect we’re just victims of misfortune.

In any event, I’ll be exercising my non-existent handyman genes over the next several days in an effort to repair the fence. I’m not sure how to do it, actually. This ought to be fun.